[pasabagi]

Does anybody know of a good reference text that can teach you the basics of optics? I've been messing around making little projectors out of old camera lenses and cheap lenses from ali express, and I've had some success, but I have basically had to design everything so I can get all the lenses in the right place by moving them around, because I don't really understand the principles.

[buescher]

For hobbyists:

The old Edmund Scientific books if you can find them. They didn’t bother with isbn numbers so now that they no longer sell them it’s not easy. Wildly out of date in some ways but good basic explanations of geometric optics and its applications.

Gordon McComb’s Laser Cookbook or the ray gun book. They are basically the same book, one just looks more embarrassing. Also now out of date, but not terribly.

There are a few good hobbyist-level books on holography but I don’t have names at hand.

[buescher]

Here's some Edmund application material - scroll down for the archive of old Edmund Scientific literature. I think "Graphical Ray Tracing" is what you are looking for. All About Telescopes also has lots of information on basic optical calculations and measurements. https://www.edmundoptics.com/knowledge-center/technical-lite...

[itishappy]

Optics - Eugene Hecht

Undergraduate level reference text that I see in almost every optical engineer's office. It's dense, but it's thorough.

https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/5054148/mod_resou...